Before Disney’s 2005 blockbuster film, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis was virtually unknown in France. There were some among the very few French Evangelical Christians (about 1% of the population) who knew him for some of his “spiritual” books, like Mere Christianity or Screwtape Letters. In English-speaking countries, among Christians and non-Christians alike, Narnia was as famous as other fantasy worlds like Middle-earth or Never Never Land. In France, almost nobody had heard of it. You could have stopped anybody on the street and asked if they knew what Narnia was and they would have answered, “Narnia? No idea what you’re talking about.” Even at university, in my English faculty, none of the professors specialized in English literature knew what I was referring to when I first asked them if I could write my Master’s thesis on Narnia.
It could be that France was less attracted by fantasy literature—although J.R.R. Tolkien has fared better than C.S. Lewis. The Lord of the Rings was only translated into French in 1972, almost 20 years after the original edition. When Tolkien’s classic appeared, though, it was an immediate and enduring success.
Then, there was the Harry Potter phenomenon. Suddenly, all over the world, people started to be interested in fantasy and wanted to read more of it. The same thing happened in France. Just like everywhere else, young people queued in front of bookstores to be the first to get the new books, and some even read them in English because they couldn’t wait for the translation to be published (which is surprising indeed, because French people are not that interested in foreign languages in general).
Between the Disney Narnia films and the Harry Potter effect, a short look at France’s publication history of C.S. Lewis texts will show the growing effect of his writing in my country.
Narnia
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was first published in France in 1952 and reprinted in 1973.
(English Translation: The Lion and the White Witch)
It was followed by Prince Caspian in 1953, and 1973.
(English Translation: Prince Caspian)
In the 1980s, four volumes out of the seven were translated and published anew. I remember reading them as a child and liking them, but not making the connection with anything spiritual at the time. Of course, the fact that they were published does not mean that they were necessarily well known. After all, I was a bookworm as a child and devoured anything I could lay my hands on at the library, which explains why I came across them.
(English Translation: The Magic Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Beautiful Dawn, The Silver Chair)
When the general interest in fantasy started to grow in France, for the first time, the whole series of seven volumes was translated and published in 2001-2003. The previous books were out of print and even the collection “La Bibliothèque du Chat perché” didn’t exist anymore. (“La bibliothèque du Chat perché” is a French collection of novels for children created in 1978 by the publisher Flammarion. It was discontinued in 1994. The collection issued a number of classic novels for young people, often translated from English, in paperback format.)
(English Translation: The Magician’s Nephew, The Magic Wardrobe, The Horse and His Squire or The Horse and His Rider, The Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Ferryman, The Silver Chair, The Last Battle)
Now, thanks to the three films, many more people—especially among the Harry Potter generation—know what Narnia is about, and the books have been published again as one volume (unfortunately not presented in publication order) or seven volumes, with some of the covers with tie-ins to the films.
(The World of Narnia, The Lion, the White Witch, and the Magic Wardrobe)
(English Translation: The Magician’s Nephew, The Lion, the White Witch, and the Magic Wardrobe, The Horse and His Squire or The Horse and His Rider, The Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Ferryman, The Silver Chair, The Last Battle)
The Rest of Lewis’ Books
France has a history of publishing Lewis materials beyond Narnia. Some of his non-fiction books were translated in the 50s and 60s: Le problème de la souffrance (The Problem of Pain) in 1950, Surpris par la joie (Surprised by Joy) in 1964 by French publishers; Être ou ne pas être: le christianisme est-il facile ou difficile? (Mere Christianity) in 1968, Et si Dieu écoutait? in 1970 (Letters to Malcolm) by a Swiss one (Delachaux & Niestlé).
(English Translation: The Problem of Suffering, Surprised by Joy, To Be or Not to Be: Is Christianity Easy or Difficult?, What if God Listened)
A Grief Observed was translated in Canada under the title Un chagrin passionné in 1961 (literally, A Passionate Grief), and then republished as Apprendre la mort in 1974 in France (literally, Apprehending Death).
In 1979, a new translation of Mere Christianity came out, called Voilà pourquoi je suis chrétien (literally, Here is Why I am a Christian) followed by a more well-known one in 1985, entitled Les fondements du christianisme (The Foundations of Christianity). It was re-published for the 6th time in 2006.
(English Translation: Here is Why I am a Christian, The Foundations of Christianity)
In the 80s, Miracles (1985), The Abolition of Man (1986), and a few essays from God in the Dock (1982) and Screwtape Proposes a Toast (1985) were translated.
(English Translation: Miracles, The Abolition of Humanity/Man, God in the Dock/God in the Seat of the Accused, Demoncratically Yours, Screwtape)
Going back in history, the first fictional work which was published in French was actually The Screwtape Letters (Tactique du diable, literally, The Devil’s Tactics or The Devil’s Strategy) in 1943. It was republished in 1967 by the same publisher with a different cover. This work was translated again in 1980. The second translation proved quite popular (all things considered) and was re-published at least seven or eight times. I found it on our bookshelves at home and I remember reading it as a teenager and enjoying it.
(English Translation: The Devil’s Tactics/The Devil’s Strategy, subtitle, Letters from a Veteran Tempter to a Novice)
Then came The Great Divorce (Le grand divorce entre le ciel et la terre, literally, The Great Divorce between Heaven and Earth) in 1947 by Delachaux & Niestlé, later translated as L’autobus du paradis (literally, The Bus to Heaven) in 1980.
(English Translation: The Bus to Heaven)
In 1952, the first volume of Lewis’ Cosmic Trilogy came out: Le silence de la terre (literally, The Silence of the Earth).
It was re-printed in 1967, along with Voyage à Vénus (literally, Voyage to Venus) and Cette hideuse puissance (literally, That Hideous Power) in a single volume.
The first 2 volumes, Le silence de la terre and Voyage à Vénus, were re-printed a third time in 1975 and 1976 by Retz, simultaneously in black and white hardback covers and in cheaper colored paperback versions.
In 1979, Oswald published Cette hideuse puissance, followed by Le silence de la terre and Voyage à Vénus in 1981. I find the covers of these versions fascinating, although Tinidril doesn’t look very friendly and her face reminds me of Frankenstein’s monster more than of the perfect Eve she is supposed to represent.
(English Translation: The Silence of the Earth, Voyage to Venus, That Hideous Power)
The Cosmic Trilogy was published as a single volume in 1997.
(English Translation: The Cosmic Trilogy: Beyond the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Power)
The three books came out again in 2008 but they are currently out of print.
(English Translation: Beyond the Silent Planet, Perelandra, This Hideous Power)
Lewis’ last novel, Till We Have Faces, was published for the first time in France in 1995 under the title Un visage pour l’éternité and a second translation came out in 2011, Tant que nous n’aurons pas de visage.
(English Translation: A Face for Eternity, Until we Have a Face/Until we No Longer Lack a Face)
Towards the end of the 90s, a Swiss publisher, Raphaël, (which, sadly, doesn’t publish anymore) took a special interest in the works of C.S. Lewis. They made many of them available again to the reading public—sometimes with a new translation, sometimes using a previous one. They re-published Surprised by Joy (1998), The Great Divorce (1998), The Problem of Pain (2001), Letters to Malcolm (2000), The Abolition of Man (2005), God in the Dock (2010) and for the first time, Reflections on the Psalms (Réflexions sur les Psaumes 1999) and The Four Loves (Les quatre amours 2005).
(English Translation: Surprised by Joy, The Great Divorce … Between Heaven and Earth, The Problem of Suffering, Letters to Malcolm, The Abolition of Man/Humanity, God in the Dock/God in the Seat of the Accused, Reflections on the Psalms, The Four Loves)
L’abolition de l’homme was re-published in 2017 and Apprendre la mort in 2019.
(English Translation: The Abolition of Man/Humanity, Apprehending Death)
Things have been moving in the last two or three years. Two publishers have taken over where Raphaël left off. Empreinte Temps Présent, a French publisher interested in books on religion and psychology, has republished and retranslated God in the Dock, Miracles, Reflections on the Psalms, and Screwtape Letters.
(English Translation: God in the Dock/God in the Seat of the Accused, Miracles, Reflections on the Psalms, The Devil’s Tactics/The Devil’s Strategy, subtitle, Letters from a Veteran Tempter to a Novice)
A Roman Catholic publisher, Pierre Tequi, has published The Problem of Pain, The Four Loves and, for the first time, Lettres du pays de Narnia (Letters to Children).
(English Translation: The Problem of Suffering, The Four Loves, Letters of the Land of Narnia: C.S. Lewis Writes to Children)
Most of these books were published in 2020. Perhaps a positive effect of lockdown?
Surprisingly, I even came across a translation of a book I would have thought was not an obvious choice: The Dark Tower and Other Stories (La tour noire et autres histoires) which was published by Antigone 14, also in 2020.
(English Translation: The Black Tower, and Other Stories)
To this day, The Pilgrim’s Regress has never been translated—the only work of Lewis’ fiction that has not found its way to a French public. Similarly, out of all of Lewis’ essays (more than 120), only twenty have been published in France. As far as the literary criticism is concerned, An Experiment in Criticism is the only book to have been translated into French to my knowledge; Expérience de critique littéraire was released by the Parisian publisher Gallimard, in 1965, but has long been out of print.
(English Translation: An Experiment in Literary Criticism)
Other books which are out of print today include The Cosmic Trilogy and The Great Divorce. It seems that lately publishers have been more interested in the non-fiction than in the fiction. But who knows, plans may be under way to re-publish some of Lewis’ fiction as we speak…. There definitely seems to have been a renewed interest among French publishers and readers lately so let us hope it will carry on. What would help would be a new adaptation of Narnia for the big screen or a TV series some time in the near future. Come on, Netflix and Greta Gerwig, get down to work!
When doing the research for this article, I was surprised to find out how early many of Lewis’s books were actually published (for example, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was first translated in 1952, only 2 years after the English version). I was also astonished to discover that books like An Experiment in Criticism had been published in French at all. Of course, this doesn’t mean people knew about them (I expect they were published in limited editions).
On the whole, you are not likely to come across a Lewis book if you go to a French bookshop today. I am grateful for the little we have in the French language, but I would like to see so much more. Since you are reading this blog, I suppose I don’t need to convince you that Lewis, as a writer both of fiction and non-fiction, is still relevant today. Yet many people can’t have access to his works because they don’t speak English well enough. Beyond France, there are 87 French speaking countries including Canada, Belgium, Switzerland and significant portions of Africa and the Caribbean, so there are many potential readers out there.
Books on C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis is not well-known in France, even if things have improved a little since the Disney Narnia films and the Harry Potter effect. Quite a few of his books were translated and published, but in limited editions, and a lot of them are out of print today. As far as books and resources about Lewis in French are concerned, the situation is even worse.
When we think of the enormous number of books that have been written on C.S. Lewis in the English-speaking world, what exists in French may seem absolutely ridiculous in comparison. The fact that I can present all of the popular and academic books about C.S. Lewis that exist in the French language in a single post is a sign in itself of how small the field really is. It’s true, I might have missed some of them. But this would mean they can’t easily be found on the Internet, and so are most probably unavailable anyway.
I tried to make a list of books on C.S Lewis available in French today and I found 18 of them.
Seven of them are translations from English. Two were published by Raphaël: in 1998, Leanne Payne, Présence réelle, La vision chrétienne du monde dans la pensée et l’imaginaire de C.S. Lewis (Real Presence, The Christian Worldview of C.S. Lewis as Incarnational Reality) and in 2005, Colin Duriez, Au Coeur de Narnia, Découvrez le monde fascinant de C.S. Lewis de A à Z (A Field Guide to Narnia).
(English Translation: Real Presence: The Christian Vision of the World in the Thinking and Imagination of C.S. Lewis; In the Heart of Narnia: Discovering the Fascinating World of C.S. Lewis, from A to Z)
In 2006, after the Disney release of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, David Colbert’s Les mondes magiques de Narnia (The Magical Worlds of Narnia) and Trouver Dieu dans Narnia (Finding God in the Land of Narnia) by Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware were translated.
(English Translation: The Magical Worlds of Narnia: Myths, Legends, and Historic Facts; Finding God in Narnia)
The last English-origin publication came out in 2020: a translation of Michael D. Aeschliman’s book on The Abolition of Man, La restauration de l’homme: C.S. Lewis contre le scientisme, published by Pierre Tequi.
(English Translation: The Restoration of Man: C.S. Lewis vs. Scientism)
When browsing on the site of a Christian bookshop, I came across 2 more books that had not appeared on my search engine before. Both of them are translations from the English. One of them is Peter Kreeft invented dialogue between C.S. Lewis, J.F. Kennedy and A. Huxley a few minutes after they died. It was published in 2005 under the title Un dialogue entre le ciel et l’enfer (Between Heaven and Hell). The second one is a children’s novel inspired by the Narnia story: Jack et une certaine armoire (Jack and the Wardrobe), by Nicola Jemphrey, which came out in 2010.
(English translation: A Dialogue Between Heaven and Hell, Jack and a Certain Wardrobe).
Three of the other French Lewis studies books are based upon French doctoral dissertations: L’imaginaire spirituel de C. S. Lewis : expérience religieuse et imagination dans son œuvre de fiction, by Daniel Warzecha in 2010, L’évangile selon C.S. Lewis, le dépassement du masculin-féminin dans la quête de Dieu by myself in 2011 and Le sens et la vérité du mythe dans Mere Christianity de C.S. Lewis by Stephen Johnston in 2017.
(English Translation: The Spiritual Imagination of C.S. Lewis: Religious Experience and Imagination in His Work of Fiction; The Gospel according to C.S. Lewis: Moving Past the Masculine/Feminine Divide in the Quest for God)
Two more French academic books are monographs: Mythe, raison ardente: imagination et réalité selon C. S. Lewis written by Irène Fernandez in 2005 and Narnia, monde théologique?: théologie anonyme et christologie pseudonyme written by Jean-Yves Lacoste and published in the same year.
(English Translation: C.S. Lewis: Myth, Ardent Reason: For Understanding The Chronicles of Narnia (subtitle: Imagination and Reality According to C.S. Lewis); Narnia, Theological World? (subtitle: Anonymous Theology and Pseudonymous Christology))
The other 6 are books for the general public. My friend Suzanne Bray published À travers l’Armoire Magique: C. S. Lewis et l’univers de Narnia in 2005 and C.S. Lewis ou la vocation du bestseller in 2007. French journalist and author Philippe Maxence published Le monde de Narnia décrypté in 2005, and it was re-printed in 2021.
(English Translation: Through the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis and the Narnian Universe; C.S. Lewis, or Vocation Bestseller; The World of Narnia Deciphered/Decrypted)
In 2008, Virginie Michelet published Le guide magique du monde de Narnia for children, complete with recipes and colorings (it’s out of print but can still be found second-hand). In 2014, Le mystère de Narnia came out, translated from a 2005 German book by Michael Stricker. In 2015, Geoff et Janet Benge published a biography of C.S. Lewis which was re-published in 2020.
(English Translation: The Magical Guide to the World of Narnia; The Mystery of Narnia; C.S. Lewis: The Master Storyteller/Raconteur)
And that really is it!
In Academia
In the academic world beyond books, I am afraid the situation is even worse. I consulted a list of all the doctoral dissertations ever defended in France. Out of thousands of great projects, I found only 10 entirely dedicated to C.S. Lewis, plus 5 partially dealing with his works. The first person ever to dare write a dissertation on C.S. Lewis in France was Professor Jacques Sys, who sadly passed away in 2007. He was a man I admired immensely for his mixture of erudition, passion, and humility. He is the reason why I wrote my own dissertation on C.S. Lewis and Gender. He was the one who suggested working on that topic when I approached him in 2005. He told me that most people misunderstood Lewis, believing he was a misogynist, and he helped me realize how visionary Lewis really was. Prof. Sys wrote his dissertation “Le temps et l’histoire dans l’œuvre de C. S. Lewis” (“Time and History in the Works of C.S. Lewis”) in 1986, and told me that he met with a lot of opposition from colleagues who thought Lewis was not fit to be studied at university.
Fortunately, the situation was a bit better when I defended my dissertation in 2009. However, there were still people who thought I was not a proper researcher because of my field of interest. Fantasy is still not taught very often at university but things are moving: 3 years ago, for the first time, I taught a 12-hour course on Fantasy Literature at the University of Picardie Jules Verne, where I work. In this course, I was able to invite students to read the works of T.H. White, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Terry Pratchett, Mervyn Peake, and J.K. Rowling. The fact that they enjoyed it was a big win!
So, there is some intellectual interest, even in a country that resists treating fantasy as literature and is unfamiliar with C.S. Lewis. In 2011, for the first time ever, there was a C.S. Lewis and Friends International Conference organized in Lille, in the North of France. It was one of Jacques Sys’s dreams to have this happen and Suzanne Bray made it a reality. We had illustrious guests, including David and Crystal Downing, Chris Mitchell, Greg Bassham, Bruce Edwards, and Owen A. Barfield. It was a very enriching experience.
On the Net
For people who would like to know more about C.S. Lewis and who only speak French, there are not a lot of resources available on the Net. The most comprehensive information is probably to be found on Samizdat, by Canadian writer and independent researcher Paul Gosselin. It is already a bit dated and some of the links provided do not function anymore, but it is still useful.
I found another site, CSLewis.fr where someone nicknamed Pl Mrcy posted some translations of eight C.S. Lewis essays not yet published in 2020. Another consequence of the pandemic?
From time to time, while browsing, you can find some information about C.S. Lewis in blogs or articles, like for example this one, by French fantasy specialist Anne Besson or in a radio programme like this one.
In March 2023, Julien Deleplanque created a YouTube channel on Narnia called “La table de Pierre” (English translation: The Stone Table). He has got around 200 followers, including me!
On the whole, it is quite rare to come across such material, compared to the enormous amount of info and resources you can find on the Net. A drop in the ocean, I would say…
Conclusion
Writing this post has made me realize even more how much needs to be done to make C.S. Lewis and his works better known in France. It is a country with an interest in literature, in general, and a growing number of young people who like fantasy. However, it is also a very secular country, generally looking at everything to do with religion with a suspicious eye. Concerning C.S. Lewis, most people simply haven’t heard of him. So if anyone out there has a strong interest in making C.S. Lewis known to the French-speaking public and is bilingual, feel free to contact me or/ and to join the Facebook group I created in December 2023, to mark the first C.S. Lewis Reading Day. It is called “C.S. Lewis en francophonie”. Since then, I have started a book club on Zoom. We are reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe together and discussing it. There are 9 participants (3 people who already know C.S. Lewis, are not French, but like speaking French, and 5 French people who are not very familiar with C.S Lewis) so it is a very modest beginning. Maybe, one day, we can do something more ambitious, like a blog or a podcast. We’ll see how things go!
